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I have finally started to read Half the Sky, a book by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn.  I was able to watch the movie event based on it but am finally making the time to read it!  Kristof and Wudunn show how small things can help transform the lives of women and girls being oppressed in the developing world and the impact that it can have on global poverty.  I am already excited just by reading the introduction!  Here are a few paragraphs to inspire you:

Honor killings, sexual slavery, and genital cutting may seem to Western readers to be tragic but inevitable in a world far, far away.  In much the same way, slavery was once widely viewed by many decent Europeans and Americans as regrettable but ineluctable feature of human life.  It was just one more horror that had existed for thousands of years.  But then in the 1780s a few indignant Britons, led by William Wilberforce, decided that slavery was so offensive that they had to abolish it.  And they did.  Today we see the seed of something similar: a global movement to emancipate women and girls.

So let us be clear about this up front: We hope to recruit you to join an incipient movement to emancipate women and fight global poverty by unlocking women’s power as economic catalysts.  This is the process under way – not a drama of victimization but of empowerment, the kind that transforms bubbly teenage girls from brothel slaves into successful businesswomen.

Take your first step toward helping protect and empower women around the world.  Ask Congress to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).  This women’s treaty is used around the world to ensure women’s rights to own property, provide access to primary education and health care and protect women from domestic violence.  They have ratified similar treaties for other issues like genocide and race, but have yet to do so to protect women.

I’m in! How about you?

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